CHP holds rally against undemocratic removal of district mayor in front of municipality

Duvar English

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Oct. 31 protested the undemocratic removal of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district Mayor Ahmet Özer from his post by the government. 

Özer, from the CHP, was arrested on Oct. 30 on alleged charges of "membership in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) armed terrorist organization." 

The government once again undemocratically appointed a trustee to replace Özer, in what some called an intimidation against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. 

To protest the move, the CHP hold a rally in front of the Esenyurt Municipality building, which saw the participation of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party. 

Taking the stage, CHP leader Özgür Özel called the move a “coup attempt… disrespecting the will of the nation.”

“At 5 in the morning, when he could have gone to testify if he had been invited, they broke down his door and came to his house with a locksmith. His wife asked them to wake him up, but they refused. They went to Ahmet Özer's bedroom and woke him up themselves, they did this on purpose. The immoral, lawless treatment there will eventually return from the conscience of this nation,” he said. 

“They went to the municipality simultaneously. They broke the door of the state municipality with a sledgehammer. Our lawyers who were members of the municipality council were not allowed inside. There were no lawyers at home or in the municipality,” Özel said, calling his detention unlawful.

“If you go back 10 years to who talked to terrorists, there are 10 people in the AKP who are not members of the FETÖ organization. They say Özer had a phone call with Remzi Kartal. You see that in 2015, Remzi Kartal and AKP Deputy Chairman and Deputy Speaker of Parliament had dinner together. If you arrest him for meeting with Remzi Kartal, there will be no one left in the AKP,” he added.

Özel also called for an early election and called on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to resign.

Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu said, “They declared Ahmet Özer, a scientist I have known for many years, a professor raised by this country, a mayor elected with the participation and great support of the whole Esenyurt, a terrorist, arrested him. They are doing the same thing today (as in 2019). They want to get the authority that the people did not give them through politically guided courts.”

İmamoğlu said who prepared the indictment against Özer “needs to see a psychiatrist immediately.”

“First, prove that you are a democratically legitimate government that respects the will of the people at the ballot box. This government should first prove its love and respect for this nation. But it cannot. Didn’t they call those who voted for them ‘good’ and those who did not ‘terrorists’? These are bad people. Those who say these words are bad people,” he said.

“They will not think about the peace of the country, the welfare of the citizens. They will not want even a single day to start with peace, with a smiling face and a good morning. But we will not surrender to this. I am telling you from here that I will deal with you, that much is clear. We will increase the fight against this evil,” he said.

Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları also took the stage. 

“Yesterday, trustees were appointed to your will. Another political coup took place yesterday. We do not accept the authoritarian regime that carried out this coup. We have experienced how dangerous the trustee regime is, how hostile it is. From here, I appeal to all the people of Esenyurt and all the forces of democracy in Turkey: Let us not allow the trustee regime,” she said.

CHP won the 2024 local elections in Esenyurt, Istanbul's most populated district, with 49.05 percent of the votes, while the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate came in second with 39.18 percent.

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